Wow! Well Worth The Wait

We just spent the last 3 hours at the pyramids and the sphinx with an amazing tour guide called Memo. He's an Egyptologist and speaks Arabic, English and Italian. How's that for intelligent!
I can tell you the great pyramid is definitely a "wonder of the world".
For all you people that are interested in facts ....
Did you know that there are actually 9 pyramids in Giza? The 3 large for the pharaohs and 6 small satellite ones for their women.
The great pyramid was built by Pharaoh Cheops 4600 years ago. It took 20 years to build and was only worked on for 3 months of each year. It was built by local farmers not slaves. It is 157 metres high, the base is 52,000m square and there are 2,300,000 limestone blocks which were brought in from the Tora quarry 3 km away. It has 3 satellite pyramids next to it for his mother, his wife and daughter.
The second pyramid was built by Cheop's son, Kefren, and is one metre shorter than the great pyramid. The upper part of the pyramid still has some of the white cement which was originally on all 3 of the main pyramids. Apparently this white cement made the pyramids look like they were covered in gold when the sun set on them.
The 3rd and smallest, due to economics, is made of limestone and there are 7 levels of red granite that are on the outside. Unfortunately the pyramid wasn't finished so that's why there were only 7 levels of the granite.
The sphinx is incredible. It was built by Kefren to guard the pyramids against evil. In front of it is a temple of mummification. Every night there is a light show against the sphinx and pyramids. It must be amazing and we will try to revisit after the curfew is over.
Didn't enter the great pyramid or the 2nd one today due to lack of time (they were only open for 4 hours), the cost of $50NZ for the great pyramid, and Memo said it was very claustrophobic inside. Maybe next holidays.
Check out some of the cool photos I took today:

 Memo's number one rule: Don't talk to anyone. What a great rule! There were so many hawkers there. We were so lucky to have him with us. That's Memo in the photo.

We could have hired a cart to take us to the top of the plateau but we preferred the air conditioned car.

 This is the main entrance to the Great Pyramid. There is a smaller entrance below.



You can see from this photo of me how big the blocks are.

The smallest pyramid and its satellite pyramids.

 The second pyramid.

 The smallest pyramid is the only pyramid in Cairo with hieroglyphics on the outside.

Iti on the walk down to the sphinx

The nose and beard of the sphinx are in the British museum. Go figure. 

Inside the Temple of the Sphinx. It had a wooden roof originally.

Anyone for Pizza Hut of KFC? This is 300m from the sphinx. MacDs is around here somewhere too.

 

Can't wait to see the Cairo Museum ... so much history! What did you think of that Room 25?